I don't know how I have avoided it for so many years. Maybe I was too busy raising children, grandchildren, working, or gardening. I am not sure, but I totally missed out on the whole Shien and Temu craze.
I remember about ten years ago trying to buy a royal blue dress at one of those online stores only to have three of the same dresses delivered way too small. They were made of some cheap knit and had been sent from Bangkok. They sat in my back closet for years until I finally chunked them to Goodwill. That could have been the reason I never bit on those ordering options.
But time and again I would compliment a lady on her outfit or child's outfit, and they would say "$3 at Temu." A friend had adorable gift bags, and I asked where she got them. "For mere dollars at Temu." Party favors…"Temu."
So, one day while scrolling on my phone the cutest pair of overalls popped up for $12. These were gold and had honeybees printed all over. They were baggy and had lots of pockets. Overalls are cool, loose, and have enough pockets to poke seeds, tiny shovels, and gloves. They are perfect for gardening.
I figured it was time I delved into this new world of overseas trade just before the word "tariffs" was introduced into our everyday vocabulary. When I went to order the overalls, a wheel popped up and started spinning. I won a free gift. So, I had to pick out the free gift. Then another wheel, then another gift. I became so distracted by these gifts that five gifts later it said if I spent $20 more, I could get 40% off. Then more wheels and more screen-touching until I finally walked away, not sure quite what had just happened. Not knowing that my phone was about to blow up for the next two months - tariffs or not.
From what I can gather the free gifts are one for every $50 dollars I spend and because I clicked on those overalls first, they are one of those free gifts I will eventually get if I keep ordering $50 dollars' worth of stuff.
Now, Temu people might say I have this all wrong. I am not sure because every day and sometimes multiple times each day I keep getting updates from them that I have won this or that and they send me other pictures of other overalls I can get for half price also..... but still there’s no sign of the free gift honeybee ones. Honestly this is how innocent people develop a gambling issue.
So far, I have received three shirts, one pair of earrings, and a sunglass holder that clicks onto the cup holder in your car, but it broke when I tried to clip it on so minus the sunglass holder, I still have no overalls. And because one of those wheels broke up the price in four payments, I am still not sure what I spent or bought.
It is like China figured out the one thing I want, and they just keep dangling it out there for me to buy more cheap plastic. Not to mention the shirts that came in barely fit, and they are an extra, extra, extra-large.
I have come to the conclusion that all those Asian people were actually afraid of an average reptile wandering in a park. Obviously average sized things are an extra-extra-extra- large. Poor Godzilla was really just a size 12 lizard trying to take a stroll among all the tiny cheap plastic buildings and kept breaking stuff. And now those overalls keep popping up under the name of other businesses taunting me to buy them.
Not falling for that again. That ship has sailed.
